In order to witness the organizational as well as professional growth, it is important that constructive criticism is given to the team members that help them improve how to navigate certain difficulties and perform better in similar situations that may arise in future. However, there is an art of delivering constructive criticism that every Manager must learn to help his team at its best. Some of the areas that should be considered by Managers are-
1. Criticize in person- It is important that you have one-to-one interaction with the concerned team member. In this world of digitalization, it may get difficult for you to make it possible but this is important as it constitutes a part of training and development for your team.
2. Thorough analysis before criticizing- Criticism feels bad in whatever sense it comes. Managers understand the responsibilities of every individual; however, there can be times when you can get confused with certain duties. Thus, always ensure and double-check that it is the concerned person who is being criticized and not somebody who is not guilty of the situation.
3. Don’t beat around the bush- By burying down the criticism under the sheets of praise, the team member can get confused or misled. The professional way is to explicitly tell them where they went wrong and what should’ve been their course of action in the given case. Also, such type of constructive criticism avoids any kind of vagueness and thus, reducing the chances of mistakes at later stages.
4. Discussions- With the means of discussion, you can allow the flow of ideas and understand exactly what and why they took certain decisions. Asking questions helps you to better understand as well as the team members get to brainstorm other solutions that they could’ve chosen.
5. Focus on the most critical issue- By digging down to minor problems of the past, you may miss out on the existing and most critical one. Stay focused to only one and the most critical issue of all, which will help you streamline the subject and get better inputs from the team without creating any confusion for them.
These are some of the key factors associated with constructive criticism that needs to be considered to showcase better management skills. At the top business school of Gurugram, the students learn and practice at an early stage so that it gets deep-rooted in them and put to use in their professional career.